Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Venera 4 - Deaf Hearts EP

EP review by kev@thesoundofconfusion.co.uk

You know that feeling you get when you discover a great new band and can barely wait for them to release their new record? Receiving the vast amount of music we get here at The Sound Of Confusion that feeling is increasingly rare, and that's in part due to a lot of it being substandard, and in part due to there being so much that we find new favourite bands on a regular basis. For me personally, Parisian quartet Verera 4 brought back all those feelings of excitement that pre-date the internet (in common use anyway) and took me back to the days of listening to the alternative shows on late-night radio, waiting to see if the song I liked would be played, and then saving my pennies to buy a copy (if I could get one, being a fan of less well-known music in a remote location meant a lot of phone calls and then waiting for the postman...).

It was lead-track 'Deaf Heartbeats' that sealed it. A stunning shoegaze/pop-rush of melodic wonder. It was like someone firing liquid gold out of the speakers. Now the EP is here, if any of the rest lives up to that song then euphoria will kick in. Second track 'Home' creeps up and then bursts forth with a beat from the height of baggy and affected guitar to match. It's a little slower but it gives proof that the opener is no one-off; this is also dripping in melody and sprinkled with gold dust. It's what half of the British indie bands have been trying to do this year, only better. Talking of better, Venera 4 step it up a gear again on 'Blood', another tune that uses sounds from the same era; the treated guitar, the lively beats, the synths, the pure tune that people would sell their souls for. 'Deaf Hearts' it turns out, isn't a let-down at all, and they're not done yet. 'Ash & Gray' is more of the same with a slight alteration that sees screeching, tortured instruments do battle with the female vocal and the pace of the song that breathes life while the instruments slowly die. They finish-up with the track that acted as our introduction to the band, the epic dreamgaze of 'Haunted Summer'. Consider euphoria reached.